Trenton
-- New Jersey’s seat belt usage rate
rose for the 15th consecutive year to a
record 94.51%, Attorney General Paula T.
Dow and Division of Highway Traffic Safety
Acting Director Gary Poedubicky announced
today.

An
observational survey conducted in late May
and early June by the New Jersey Institute
of Technology, soon after state’s
“Click It or Ticket” seat belt
campaign, determined the new rate, which
was up from 93.73% in 2010.

The
.78% uptick is important. Using the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration guidelines,
this year’s gains in seat belt use
will prevent six additional fatalities,
176 serious injuries, 132 minor injuries
and 307 non-fatal injuries with a savings
of $42 million in crash-related economic
costs annually.

The
state also made substantial gains in back-seat
passenger safety belt use, though those
numbers lagged far behind front-seat usage.
The survey found that 61% of back-seat passengers
wore their seat belts, up from 48% last
year. Adults over the age of 18 were the
least likely in the survey to wear their
seat belts, buckling up only 35% of the
time, but that was an increase from 27%
in 2010.

“In
collisions, serious injuries can be caused
by unbelted occupants colliding with each
other,” Poedubicky said. “People
in the front seat can be struck by unbelted
rear-seat passengers who become high-speed
projectiles in a crash. Making backseat
passengers buckle up will help save lives.”

Legislation
passed in 2010 made it a secondary offense
for adults over the age of 18 to ride unbuckled
in the back seat of a motor vehicle. The
law allows police to issue a summons and
fine of $46 to unrestrained adults in the
back seat when the car they are riding in
is pulled over for another violation. The
state’s primary seat belt law requires
all motorists and passengers in the front
seat, including passengers under the age
of 18, to wear a seat belt or be securely
buckled in a car seat, or face a $46 fine.
This ticket is issued to the driver.

“The
continued increase in seat belt usage is
proof that our laws and programs are working,
but our goal is 100% compliance. Passengers
and motorists alike have to continue to
consider buckling up a potentially life
and death decision and something they should
do every time they get in a motor vehicle,”
Poedubicky said.

Buckling
up is the single most effective way for
a motor vehicle occupant to avoid death
or serious injury in a crash. It reduces
the risk of fatal injury by 45% and moderate
or critical injury by 50%.

Eighty-five
percent of New Jersey’s police agencies,
or 419 of 493, participated the “Click
It or Ticket” campaign. The mobilization
ran from May 23 to June 5 and resulted in
32,228 seat belt citations, down from 35,671
in 2010.

The
state is pointing to the increase in belt
usage as the primary reason for the 9% decrease
in citations. Police officers also wrote
926 child restraint and 5,865 speeding citations,
and made 953 DWI arrests.

“Every
state trooper has seen the results of people
killed because they were not wearing their
seat belts,” said Major Lou Klock,
Deputy Superintendent of Operations for
the New Jersey State Police. “If we
could share those bad memories with the
last few holdouts refusing to comply with
the law, they would immediately buckle up.”